


Something In Her Eyes

by likehandlingroses



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Sea Devil Week, Sea Devil Week 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 21:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4494840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likehandlingroses/pseuds/likehandlingroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ursula has traveled across realms in order to track down the infamous Author, a man who just might be able to get her the kingdom she's always wanted. What she happens upon, however, is something different: a young woman who wants all the same things she does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something In Her Eyes

Murray’s Club hadn’t quite emptied out, but after the noise and silly dancing and constant stream of gin, Ursula was finished with waiting. Anyway, she’d seen all she needed to see. The Author knew her, she saw the fear in his eyes the moment she approached his table. His female companion, a slender and wide eyed blonde, stared at them both, mouth wide open. Ursula had seen enough of her foolish antics that night to want to slap her. 

“Ursula...you’re a little out of your way tonight," the Author said, trying to begin the conversation on his terms. 

“ I think you know why. I need you to get me a kingdom of my own.” 

“Can’t do it,” the Author said. Ursula saw his companion sit up straighter in her seat, that infuriating expression of puzzlement still plastered on her face. 

“I just watched you give this blonde idiot a diamond necklace, don’t tell me you can’t do this for me, because I know you can!” 

“You’re wrong. I’d be happy to write about Queen Ursula’s marvelous kingdom. But I can’t make it happen for you. Now, if you’ll excuse me-” 

Ursula leaned over the table.“I came all this way for your help, Author.”

“Well then, I’m sorry. But I can’t help you.”

“But you could if you wanted,” the blonde woman insisted, to Ursula’s surprise. “You said you had the power to change stories.”

The Author shook his head. “Not hers. She’s a villain, a sea witch. And not even my pen can change hearts or minds. She can’t rule a kingdom if no one could love her, no one could respect her. My pen can change facts and appearances, everything from petty details to catastrophic events. But it can’t make her anything other than what she is in her very soul. It would always bleed through.”

Ursula could see Cruella’s face grow paler as he spoke. She wasn’t nearly as silly as she pretended to be, and the Author’s words were spooking her. She’d had a plan from the start, and Ursula was almost interested enough to stick around and see what it was. But then she heard one of those ridiculous carriages without horses starting from outside and remembered she wanted out of this realm as quickly as possible. 

“I don’t need your help,” she snarled at the couple. “I’ll get it myself, just like everything else I have. And you, you small, pathetic, worthless man...you can write all about it in your books. Just like you’ll write about her,” Ursula gestured to Cruella. “once she’s bored of your flashy tricks.” 

She stormed out of the club and was readying herself to sprint across the road before one of those monstrous carriages came along when she heard some calling behind her. 

“No, please wait!” She turned and saw Cruella. Alone, it appeared. She’d heard the word ‘queen’ and come running...Ursula almost felt sorry for the Author. He’d lost the only chance he might ever have at something exciting. 

“Look, I know what you’re trying to do. Writer Boy might be too smitten with you to notice, but I’m not getting involved with a con artist.”

Cruella pretended to look shocked for only a moment before sighing. “Well, what else was I supposed to do? I didn’t have any way of getting out and then he was there, right outside my window! Maybe I did...exaggerate a tad, but why shouldn’t I try and get away? Isn’t that what you did?”

For the first time, Ursula was glad for the lights that shone even in the night in this realm. Cruella was beautiful when she wasn’t pretending to be a pretty fool. The glint in her eyes was dangerous, even savage. But Ursula recognized it, understood it. 

“Do whatever you want,” she finally replied, in a tone less forceful than she’d wanted. “But I’m not the person to take you.”

“But you could be! You could take me, if you wanted. If you’re as powerful as you seem to think you are,” Cruella said, raising her chin. 

“Oh, I can do it. I just don’t know if I want to. You just ditched that man, who’s to say you won’t do the same to me at the first chance? Or worse?”

Cruella shook her head fervently. “I wouldn’t. This was the first time I’ve ever even...it’s just that people try and make me feel small and worthless and too horrible to be seen, and I can’t stand it. And what he just said about how people can’t change, that it’s all decided...he’s just the same as all the rest. But then when you said all that about getting things yourself, I knew that you were really what I want. Not someone to use and throw away. Someone who understands what I want, who has the power to help me get to it. And I can help you, I know I can-”

“-with what? What do you have that I don’t?”

“I saw you looking at me. Not with that sappy look he gave me,” Cruella gave a disdainful look backwards at the club. “but with desire, real feeling.”

“You’ve been reading too many books,” Ursula said, looking down at the ground. “Or maybe it’s that music…”

“Oh, no, I’ve always detested those parts of stories. And I hardly ever hear music. Mother doesn’t like it. She doesn’t believe I really like it either. She thinks I take the radio up to spite her. She thinks everything I do is to spite her, and it isn’t. I wouldn’t mind her at all if she didn’t hate me so much. Only I can’t remember a time she didn’t...she says I started it, but how can I have started something I don’t remember?”

This wasn’t the same sob story Ursula had overheard bits and pieces of before, the one she’d told the Author about her murderous mother. Indeed, Cruella didn’t appear to quite realize she was speaking aloud at all, and she jumped when Ursula took a step forward towards her. 

“You can come with me,” Ursula said, and Cruella nodded, eyes wide. “but if I catch one hint of anything strange...remember, you can’t breathe under there unless I let you. Understood?”

She nodded again. “Ursula, I-”

“Listen, I don’t have time for another speech. Let’s go.”

Once outside the limits of the crowded streets, the way became dark. Ursula didn’t mind. She could hear the water under the ground; she didn’t need the light. But her companion trembled at the cold and was frightened of the darkness, and Ursula had a tight grip on her hand by the time they reached the river. 

“This will do. Now, you need to hold on to me. The magic here is different, so I won’t be able to take those away,” Ursula gestured to Cruella’s legs. “until we get back to my waters. So if you want to live, don’t let go until I say so. Okay?” 

“I understand,” Cruella said, breathless. She gripped Ursula’s hand tighter as Ursula dipped a toe into the water. The water swirled, forming a whirlpool, and Cruella stepped back from the bank. 

“I don’t think I can-”

“-you can and you’re going to. I’m counting to three, and then I’m jumping. You can jump with me or get dragged down. But you’re going in. Ready? One,” Ursula could see Cruella bracing herself, eyes closed, lips pressed together. “two...three!” 

The journey back was more difficult with a squirming, terrified blonde attached to her right hand, but Ursula managed it. Once there, she swam up to the shore, leaving Cruella panting against a rock while she admired her reacquired tentacles. Cruella stared at them in awe. 

“I thought you were a-”

“-mermaid? I was. But I like these better. They’re stronger.”

“Can I have-”

Ursula shook her head and laughed. “You couldn’t handle these. But I can get you tail. And that’ll work just fine, especially since you’ll be begging to go back in a week.”

“I will not!” Cruella said, trying to stand and slipping. Ursula smirked and pulled out a sparkling coral bracelet. 

“Well, let’s get you in the water and see,” Ursula said, stepping forward. “You want a tail? Bracelet on. Legs? Bracelet off. Really easy.” 

Cruella snatched the bracelet from her but paused before putting it on, looking Ursula in the eye.

“You keep patronizing me, Ursula, but I’m not a naive child. And I think, deep down, you know that. I didn’t come here for you to laugh at me.”

“Understood,” Ursula said, softly. “should we go down?”

Cruella nodded, stepping closer so that the gap between them nearly vanished. “But first, I want…” Her voice trailed off, but her teeth teased her bottom lip for an instant. Ursula took the cue and kissed her. She meant for it to be soft, gentle, finished in a moment, but Cruella held her there, both hands pulling Ursula closer. She let out a soft “oh!” when Ursula finally drew herself away. 

“Later,” Ursula murmured. “I think you’ve made your point.”

“Good,” Cruella said as they stepped in the water. Once up to her waist, she slid the bracelet on, and Ursula grinned as she stared down at her tail, astonished. 

“It worked!”

“It did,” Ursula said, holding out her hand. Cruella looked at it, frowning. 

“But can’t I go ahead and swim on my own, now?”

“Well, you could,” Ursula admitted. “But a tail’s a big thing to get used to…you might want the support.”

Cruella smiled. “Well, all right. But don’t you pull me along like last time. You nearly sprained my wrist!” 

Cruella’s grip, as it turned out, was very temporary. Once they reached the parts of the sea, where schools of fish swam and the rising sunlight just managed to shine through the water, Cruella was off, testing her new abilities by spinning and shouting and generally causing distress to the animals around her.

“Now, where do you live?” she finally asked Ursula, who shrugged. 

“This whole thing is mine. I mean, the merpeople are all loyal to my father. But these guys?” Ursula gestured to the fish around them. “Mine. I can even do a little storming here and there, if he’s not paying attention. What I really want is the castle, but I’ve got a nice cove just up ahead. Right down over there.”

The underwater dwelling was intimidating and intentionally so. Built inside an underground cliff, a person could look off the edge and see all the way down to where the light never shone. But it was also open, free, and as entirely her own as anything Ursula had ever had. 

“It’s beautiful,” Cruella said. “You know, when I left last night, I thought all I wanted was a dance and to get away, forever. And now there’s this, and I didn’t even know it was real.”

Cruella possessed spades of danger and madness, Ursula had know that from the start. It was the reason she was here, that spark of fire Ursula understood. But she was wistful, in her way. Dreaming, delicate...Ursula knew what it was to be those things, too. She hadn’t known anyone else who treaded such a line. 

“You think that’s nice, you should see the corals in the back,” Ursula said, beaming at Cruella’s eager expression. 

Ursula would get the kingdom she deserved. But it couldn’t hurt to be happy with something a little smaller in the meantime.


End file.
